Victorian Floral Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Sara Favel of Vintage Beauty CA, one of our amazing new Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Victorian Floral Junk Journal for us this week. As you know, we feature one new Junk Journal project each week created by one of our creative team of artists. Our Design Team Members select from the 100’s of Vintage Image Bundles on our Premium Membership Site, for their creations, in order to show you beautiful ways to use those images. We hope you will be totally inspired by this series!

Therefore, please make sure you check out the video tour at the bottom of the page…please scroll all the way down to see it. Are you ready to be inspired? I will step out of the way and let Sara introduce herself and tell you all about her incredible project…

Hi everyone! I am so happy to be here! My name is Sara Favel. My handle on Instagram and Youtube is VintagebeautyCA. The CA stands for Canada! It’s so nice to be here presenting my very first design team project! I hope you enjoy what I have created and I cannot wait to show you more of my journal designs in the near future! I am super excited to meet more people who share the same passions as me! 

So the inspiration for this Victorian floral-themed journal came from the beautiful antique end paper images in the “Pink, Gold and Green” ephemera bundle. I love antique end paper designs and once I saw these I knew I had to use them! Once I had an idea of the color scheme I decided to use antique victorian imagery to add pops of color to the otherwise muted soft tones of pinks. I chose Victorian scraps, roses and trade cards that as focal mages and to add interest throughout the journal. 

 This  journal measures: 7.5” x 6” and has about 128 pages. I decide the page amount depending upon the types of papers Im using (i.e short pages, thicker pages, specialty papers etc.,). 11 pages for each signature seems to work the best for my style of journal. I have 2 image options for the front cover. The owner can use either as their cover image whichever one suits them best. The first option is a collaged vintage envelope with a beautiful blue cross (search “cross” in the Graphics fairy site) that houses a blank tag made out of authentic antique manuscript. The second option is a genuine victorian trade card!

For the cover of the journal I used an old readers digest that is a beautiful aqua color with little red stars on it. I chose fabrics that would go well with the cover and the inner pages. I wound up with antique & vintage French fabrics, barkcloth, liberty fabric (to go with the floral theme) and even some old feedsack. I then slow stitched the fabrics together onto a piece of fabric that would cover the 2” spine and about 1.5” past the covers. Lastly, I added some embroidered designs I got off of vintage handkerchiefs and table linens. 

For the inner/back cover I used a beautiful floral end paper (search “purple white block print”) that I enlarged &I edited the color/hue so that it would be a pink color vs a dark purple. For the front page I used a marble paper from the “Pink, Gold and Green” ephemera bundle, that I also edited the color/hue so that it would be a soft pink muted tone for it to match the rest of the journal. The fabric pocket is made from some beautiful old french fabric with some antique trimming the bottom. Within the pocket I housed a hand painted altered flash card and some genuine antique ephemera pieces.

For the page on the left I took a french script document (search “script ephemera”) and I enlarged the image using an editing program. This allowed me to utilize about half of the actual image. I did this so  that the script would appear larger, and for there to be more journalling space. 

I did this with all of the invoices and script ephemera pieces I used throughout the journal. This allows me the freedom as a creator to use only a small portion / section of the image so that perhaps next time, I can use a different section of the exact same image and it would be an entirely different looking page! On the right side I used an authentic French manuscript as a folded flip out. I did this by hinging it to another page and sewing it into the signature. I do this for an interactive element and to add more writing space. I used a fussy cut floral (free site) and then I made a printed vellum pocket (“Pink, gold, green bundle”) to house authentic tea cards and some victorian calling cards/trade cards.

For this spread I took a beautiful dove “Ephemera Romance” image & fussy cut it to look like a victorian scrap. I then took a French receipt image and made a pocket out of it to house antique book pages, glassine envelope and a floral journal card. I love using antique receipt images as pockets as I find them so beautiful! 

For the middle of the 1st signature I took a victorian calling card image found in the “Victorian Valentines” bundle, fussy cut it and glued it to a very vintage piece of fabric that I used for a pocket. I hand sewn an antique mother of pearl button and some beautiful tatted lace to the pocket. This is removable by simply snipping the threads or you can keep it on if you’d like. 

I clipped in a glassine bag with stapled lace to add texture.I found a lot of beautiful florals that I used for my tags, as shown here. I resized the images to be larger in an editing program so that they would take up more space on my tag. I then found one of my favourite French ledger pages (the blue one on the right) via the free site by searching  “ French ephemera”. The whale tab was punched out of a page from “The British Flower Guide” bundle.

For this spread  (right side) I used another “The British Flower Guide” bundle page – I blew up the image and used it as a side pocket. I love the way this looks! I glued some antique French laundry label across the pocket to act as a belly band to house my authentic tea cards and a victorian fan image found via the free site.

For the left side,I tipped in an authentic French manuscript paper with antique lace as the hinge, and I placed a beautiful victorian scrap (“Victorian Valentines) image near the bottom. I made a pocket using some old rose crochet lace to house a collaged tag. For my tags I would add a label image , found by searching “labels” and a floral image and sometimes a genuine stamp. For the base of the tag I used either authentic antique cotton rag paper book pages or antique French manuscript.

I added another pocket using a French blue receipt and collaged an angel victorian scrap image. I tucked in blank tag bases made with authentic antique french manuscript for the owner to decorate themselves as well as antique book pages and pieces of ephemera for them to use throughout. 

I used some victorian trade cards found via the “Cherry Blossom Lane” ephemera bundle. Here is one of them (left)  that I enlarged to be an entire page. I did this because the images are just so beautiful, and because they are so crisp and clear! I love old victorian lithography, they are so colorful! I also added genuine postage stamps throughout the journal here and there, so that the eye can easily travel across both pages. I love this effect!

Here I fussy cut a victorian fashion image (“The Milliner”) to strengthen the page, as it is a very old cotton rag paper book page from the late 1700s. For the right side I used this beautiful toile like image found in the “Provence” bundle. I edited the color/hue of the image so that it would look softer and muted as opposed to the bright purple it came as originally. I love the way this turned out!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and to look at what I have created! I hope to see you over on Youtube and Instagram! There is a full flip through video available below.

VICTORIAN FLORAL JUNK JOURNAL SHOW  & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Premium Membership Bundles used in this project:

-Pink, gold, green

– Victorian scrap

– Butterfly garden

– Scents and Soaps

– Provence

– The Milliner

– Emma

– Cherry Blossom Lane

– Butterflies and Blooms

– British Flower Guide

– Tattered Paper Treasures

– Gilded age

– Pink and Green Ephemera

I hope you will visit me here:

Sara’s Instagram

Sara’s YouTube

Sara’s Etsy 

Sara

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!